BOSSES at a family run seafront pub are moving on...after 20 years.

The lease for the Castle Pub, Eastern Esplanade, Southend has been listed on property website Rightmove for £149,000.

The site offers ten hotel rooms - and 19 parking spaces.

The family behind the pub have always focussed on traditional English food and beer, and a popular Sunday carvery.

Jolene Hills, 38, manager of the pub and daughter of licensee Janet Hills said the family will be sad to leave the pub - but the time was right.

She said: “My mum wants to retire now to spend more time with the family and I am looking for a new challenge. It has only just gone on the market so we will have to see what interest we get.

“There was a time when the family also owned the Royal Hotel and the Esplanade as well as the Castle.

“We left the Esplanade about three years ago now and left the Royal Hotel about six years ago.

“We will be sad to leave the Castle, I keep having mini panics about if we want to go or not.

“I think it does need someone with new ideas to come in to run it.”

She said it is a massive community pub and all the customers know each other.

She said the family has done a lot for the community over the years including working with schools and holding charity events.

She said she hopes whoever takes it over does it justice.

Ms Hills said: “I am looking for a new challenge but still within the hospitality business.

“I think the community will be sad to see us go, I think there’s a lot of for us because we actually care.”

Janet Hills, 66, licensee of the business has been a licensee in the town for various pubs for about 45 years.

She said: “Last year we were awarded for our work in the community and got a letter congratulating us from James Duddridge MP.

“I think the pub needs to be brought into the 21 century and would be good as a Wetherspoons I think.”